I do a lot of business over instant messaging. Often, these chat sessions have important information that I need later. I used to copy out any important info into a separate file, but now many of the chat clients let you log your instant messaging. Some operating systems make it easy to search through your chat sessions to find a bit of information when you need it. If you use iChat, here is the configuration window where you can save the chats (it is at the bottom of the image). Notice you can also open the folder directly from this window. If you use the web version of Google's chat product that is integrated with Gmail, you can set it to record your chats and make them … [Read more...] about TIP: Logging Instant Messaging
Archives for May 2011
Time Discounting
There is a psychological phenomenon known as time discounting. Basically, it means that a desired result in the future is perceived as less valuable than one in the present. For example, if you allow people to choose from being paid an amount in one year as opposed to being paid a smaller amount now, they will settle for a much smaller payment right now than they will in the future. There has been some research done on this and scientists found that a $100 payment in 12 months is just as attractive as $68 right now for the average person. This means that on average, people will discount the value of a gain made in one year by 32% over how they would value the gain made … [Read more...] about Time Discounting
Popular Book – Personal MBA
I was just reviewing some stats from Amazon and it looks like the most popular book for readers of this site is The Personal MBA. If you missed it, be sure to read through our review of The Personal MBA. Statistically speaking, there is a very high probability you'll enjoy it. It is the type of book that is very relevant regardless of what industry you work in and regardless of what position you hold. … [Read more...] about Popular Book – Personal MBA
Self-Reliance by Emerson – Review and Free eBook
Self-Reliance is an essay that was first published by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1841. Emerson's didn't always write in the most accessible prose, but the essay is short enough that it should be within the reach of most readers. In Self-Reliance Emerson is issuing a call to avoid conformity--without worrying about what other's think. This essay contains the following quote which you may have heard before: To be great is to be misunderstood. Since Self-Reliance is old enough to be out of copyright, you can easily find a copy from Project Gutenberg or other online resources. The Domino Project has printed a nice hardback edition that they were kind enough to send me. The right hand pages … [Read more...] about Self-Reliance by Emerson – Review and Free eBook
The Two Types of Technology Users
Every year, a new slew of gadgets promises to solve all of our problems. Manufactures are constantly adding more features in hopes of getting us to upgrade. I've managed technology for an institution that had a large "gadget budget". Employees were able to request pretty much anything they wanted as long as there was a slight chance that it might in some way make them more effective at their jobs. I noticed that some people seemed to use the technology very well and it seemed to make a big difference in their productivity. On the other hand, there was another group of people who never seemed to get much of a benefit out of their tools. What was odd, is that the ineffective group … [Read more...] about The Two Types of Technology Users
Nexus S 4G Sprint Android Phone Review
Switching phones is expensive, so I try not to do it very often. The cost of phones isn't that bad, it is the time investment required to get a new device setup, the important data transferred over and learning how to use it. I've been using an old Blackberry Curve for years, but when it started randomly shutting itself off, I finally decided it was time to go ahead and get and updated device. In this post I'm going to review the Nexus S 4G and cover some of the technology decision points I made along the way to selecting it. Most of the reviews I've seen concentrate on the technical specifications of the Nexus. This review of the Nexus S is going to be focused … [Read more...] about Nexus S 4G Sprint Android Phone Review
Making Room On Your Hard Drive
I remember when I first started looking at computer catalogs back in the late 80s. There was a 540MB hard drive for sale that I found fascinating. It seemed like a limitless amount of storage and I remember dreaming about what type of huge business you could run with that amount of storage space. Of course now that is even less data that can fit on a single CD rom and many programs come on multiple DVDs now days. No matter how big of hard drive you have, you'll eventually be able to fill it. There are two ways to clean out unnecessary information. One is to go through, folder by folder, and clean out what you don't need. This is the "correct" way to do things. However, in the … [Read more...] about Making Room On Your Hard Drive
Tuesdays Tip: Start Something
Procrastination is the first hump we have to get over to do something. Here is a trick to get over procrastination. If there is something you don't want to work on, promise yourself to start the task and work on it for 15 minutes and then you can quit. Much of the time, once you get started you'll find that what was really holding you back was just starting the task. This is a great way to handle exercise. If you dread going to the gym, go for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes if you still don't want to exercise, you can leave. If you don't like it that day, no problem, you made the effort and you'll stay longer on a day when you like it better. We can apply Newton's first law of … [Read more...] about Tuesdays Tip: Start Something
Being Organized Saves More Than Time
Everyone knows that being more organized can save time. But it can also save you a lot of money. How many times have you had to go out and buy something just because you couldn't locate it in your house? Some time ago we were having someone come over to house sit for a few weeks. I felt bad because we didn't have a television in the house, so I set about hooking up an old DVD player to my computer monitor so they could at least watch some movies while we were gone. The video worked fine, but I needed a connector to hook up the audio. I looked through a box of audio cables, but finally gave up and went to Radio Shack. 25 minutes and $7 later (which seems ridiculous for 6 … [Read more...] about Being Organized Saves More Than Time
Setting Goals and Making Them Visible
When I was in high school, I wanted to get a computer. Computers weren't nearly as inexpensive as they are now days. The one I wanted represented about 15% of my fathers yearly salary at the time. It was much more expensive than what I could reasonably expect to save during the summer--even with taking on some extra odd jobs and saving every penny possible. I really wanted to have a computer when I started the next school year, so I decided to make that my primary goal for the summer. To help me focus on my goal, I set aside a savings account specifically for the purchase. Using my parents' typewriter, I created a thermometer style graph showing how much money I had saved and taped … [Read more...] about Setting Goals and Making Them Visible
Aging – Your Auto Self-Destruction Timebomb
Everyone gets older, but have you ever wondered why? Our bodies heal themselves, so why do organs eventually fail? The answer is fascinating. Our cells divide and make duplicates of themselves, but each time this occurs there is a section of the DNA that gets a little bit shorter. DNA replication starts at the middle and a bit of the ends don't get copied. These sections are called telomeres. Telomeres are basically end caps to the information in our DNA. If this was important information for creating a new cell, then the duplicate cell would be incomplete. The telomere data is not necessary data for the creation of a new cell. However each time the DNA is duplicated the telomere region … [Read more...] about Aging – Your Auto Self-Destruction Timebomb
Taking A Break
When you are focused on a problem, issue or task, it stays in the conscious part of you brain. However, there are some problems that you are unlikely to solve until the problem gets the attention of your unconscious mind. How do you let your unconscious mind take a look at your current enigma? You have to take a break. Mentally demanding work requires taking break to stay efficient. Unfortunately we have a cultural viewpoint that encourages people to see taking a break as a weakness. Nothing can be further from the truth. Taking a short period of time away from your main task requires a discipline. It takes discipline to know when to start and it takes discipline to get back to work … [Read more...] about Taking A Break
10 Ways to Reduce Clutter
Clutter comes at a cost. A room with a lot of clutter takes longer to clean. A cluttered closet can make it nearly impossible to find what you are looking for. If you are looking for the clear tape in a few very cluttered drawers, it might even be faster to drive to the store and buy a new roll instead of trying to find the one you own. In this post we are going to look at 10 ways you can help keep clutter to a minimum. These aren't hard and fast rules--take what is useful to you personally and ignore what isn't. A few brief decisions acting as a de-cluttering superhero can reap long term rewards--particularly when you start fighting clutter at its source before it even makes it into … [Read more...] about 10 Ways to Reduce Clutter